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Welcome to Black History Month 2023

This year’s Black History Month comes upon us with some great progress. Ketanji Brown Jackson is now the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Maryland has elected their first Black Governor, Wes Moore. And the NFL’s Super Bowl will have two Black quarterbacks for the first time.

Unfortunately, we also start the month in an uncomfortable but familiar territory. The nation is reeling from the recent tragic death of Tyre Nichols at the hand of local police officers. In Florida, and in many other states, teachers are being restricted from talking about certain topics in Black history, and high school students are being held back from earning college credits by taking AP Black History classes. The ability for some of our children to learn about history makers like Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Shirley Chisholm, Dorothy Height, Bessie Coleman, Marsha P. Johnson, Ruby Bridges, Mae Jemison, Audre Lorde, and John Lewis, is being limited by a political agenda that seeks to erase the struggles and truth of the Black experience in America.

Blocking the learning of Black history in America is an attempt to sweep under the rug the facts we know about the grim aspects of the story of our nation. Despite those efforts we know that Black history runs 365 days a year, and educators should not be censored from sharing our history. From the genocide of Native Americans to the arrival of the first slaves from Africa in the British colony of Virginia, and our experience every day since, the treatment of our people as disposable property is a story that must be told. People must know that the Civil War was fought for one simple reason – the ending of slavery in our nation. And people must know about the rise of Black Americans who were recently freed slaves, with many succeeding in business and politics in the wake of the Civil War – and they must learn about the Jim Crow era that erased that progress and subjugated Black Americans to segregation and a 2nd class citizenship.

In 1870, Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Congressman Joseph Rainey of South Carolina came to Congress and were the first Black men to serve. In 1971 during the 92nd Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus was formed by 13 founding members, including the first Black woman to serve in Congress and to run for President, Shirley Chisholm.

In 2023, we will have the largest number of African Americans serving in Congress at one time in history. And we have elected the first Black party leader, who will be the first African American Speaker in our nation’s history. Together, we will continue to fight for our communities, by expanding and preserving voting rights, advocating for the end of bad policing while keeping our communities safe, and expanding economic growth and opportunity for Black communities.”

We should all be proud in knowing Arlington has rich African American history and has often been a fore runner. Enslaved people had their freedom in Arlington before the proclamation was signed. Arlington also had the first integrated school in Virginia and the most famous contraband camp in the nation was Freedman’s Village.

Have a great February!

Dr. Scott Edwin Taylor

(President)

Remembering Brave White Antiracist Activism

I have often asked the question: “How many white civil rights heroes can you name?” I am much too often answered with silence. 

while we still fight to teach black history we must also include some of our white brothers and sisters who suffered and worked along side us. So lets have a conversation about white antiracism.

Antiracism for White people is a process of recognizing the impact of race as a system of oppression and engaging in practices, behaviors, and ways of being that disrupt racial discrimination. Racism advantages White people and disadvantages People of Color via inequitable systems of institutional power, authority, and violence. The term “People of Color” includes Native, Black/African American, Latinx, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Multiracial people. More accurately, this group is also referred to as “people of the global majority.” The goal of this activism is to challenge the racist status quo to bring about social change, healing, and liberation for non-White identified communities. The following people and organizations are White antiracist/anti-oppression activists who questioned, resisted, and interrupted racist systems.

People of Color have always worked to end racism. By naming these White activists and organizations, we hope to show that for as long as there has been racial oppression, particularly in the United States, there have been White people who have stood in solidarity with People of Color By highlighting these White activists, we hope to expand the understanding of how White people can work toward racial justice in proactive and productive ways. 

Much of what our students learn in schools about race reflects People of Color as oppressed and White people as “bad racists,” but the realities of anti-oppression/antiracism work are far more nuanced and complex.

To disrupt the narratives we learned in schools, and to support White students in recognizing their empowerment in antiracist work, we are sharing a collection of noted White antiracist/anti-oppression activists whose work can serve as a guidepost. We also recognize that these activists are products of their particular time and reflect the limitations of their time period. We also offer these examples as a way for White educators to think about their personal stake and role in challenging racism in their classrooms. This list is by no means exhaustive, but for those looking to build your curriculum, we hope you will find this list a helpful starting point. This is an attempt to highlight the work of White activists who stood up to racism when it was challenging, unpopular, and even illegal. I personally give my heartfelt thanks to them all!

Dr. Scott Taylor

Anne McCarty Brad (1924-2006)

Bradan was a journalist and community organizer from Louisville, Kentucky, who defied racist real estate practices and the House Un-American Activities Committee and organized White Southerners to support the civil rights movement. She is best known for helping a Black couple buy a house in an all-White neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky in 1954. She and her husband were put on trial for sedition, banned from jobs, threatened, and reviled by their fellow White Southerners for what they did. She wrote a book about her sedition trial, The Wall Between, which was nominated for the National Book Award. She worked closely with Rosa Parks and Ella Baker, and she is mentioned in Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Christopher Chandler

A longtime journalist who focused on social justice issues, Chandler helped start the Chicago Journalism Review, the Chicago Free Press, and the Daily Planet, and worked on exposés of the 1969 police raid that resulted in the killings of Black Panthers leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Later, he was Press Secretary for Chicago Mayor, Harold Washington, and later for U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush. From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Chandler worked in media relations for the Government Accountability Project, a Washington, D.C., group that assists whistleblowers.

Andrew Goodman (1943-1964) and Michael Henry “Mickey” Schwerner (1939-1964)

Richard Loving (1933-1975)

Mr. Loving was married to Mildred Loving, and they were plaintiffs in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967). The Lovings were an interracial married couple who were criminally charged under a Virginia statute banning such marriages. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), they filed suit to overturn the law. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in their favor, striking down the Virginia statute and all state anti-miscegenation laws as unconstitutional violations of the Fourteenth Amendment.

William Lewis Moore (1927–1963)

William Lewis Moore was a postal worker and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) member who staged lone protests against racial segregation. Moore undertook three civil rights protests in which he marched to a capital to hand-deliver letters he had written denouncing racial segregation. Moore was in the midst of a one-man civil rights march to Jackson, Mississippi, to implore Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett to support integration efforts. He wore signs that stated: “End Segregation in America, Eat at Joe’s — Both Black and White” and “Equal Rights For All (Mississippi or Bust).” On April 23, 1963, Moore was found dead on U.S. Highway 11 near Attalla, Alabama—only four days shy of his 36th birthday. A letter he had written, meant for Governor Ross, was opened when Moore was found, and its contents stated that “the White man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights.” He asked Governor Barnett to: “Be gracious and give more than is immediately demanded of you.”

Peter George Norman (1942–2006)

was an Australian track athlete who won the silver medal in the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Norman is best known as the third athlete pictured in a famous photograph of the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute, which occurred during the medal ceremony for the 200-meter event. He wore a badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights in support of fellow athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith. Norman was not selected for the 1972 Summer Olympics, and retired from the sport soon after.

James Zwerg (1939- )

James Zwerg (1939- ) is an American former minister who was involved with the Freedom Riders in the early 1960s. He participated in a one-semester student exchange program in 1961 at Fisk University, a predominantly Black school, and met John Lewis who was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As a Freedom Rider, he traveled by bus to Birmingham where Zwerg was first arrested for not moving to the back of the bus with his Black seating companion, Paul Brooks. Three days later, the riders regrouped and headed to Montgomery. At first the bus station there was quiet and eerie, but the scene turned into an ambush with the riders attacked from all directions. Zwerg was denied prompt medical attention because there were no White ambulances available, and he remained unconscious for two days. His post-riot photos were published in many newspapers and magazines across the world.

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland

I have often asked the question: “How many white civil rights heroes can you name? I am much too often answered with silence. I can’t help but believe that this camouflaged knowledge is are hidden secrets for a reason.

We all at times need someone or something to look too. More often we look to heroes who look like us.

The likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Julian Bond, and Frederick Douglass and inspired many to join the civil rights path, but where are the white leaders? Perhaps a side of white America only wants whites to admire white war heroes and former Presidents.

while we still fight to teach black history we must also include some of our white brothers and sisters who suffered and worked along side us. So lets have a conversation about white antiracism.

Antiracism for White people is a process of recognizing the impact of race as a system of oppression and engaging in practices, behaviors, and ways of being that disrupt racial discrimination. Racism advantages White people and disadvantages People of Color via inequitable systems of institutional power, authority, and violence. The term “People of Color” includes Native, Black/African American, Latinx, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Multiracial people. More accurately, this group is also referred to as “people of the global majority.” The goal of this activism is to challenge the racist status quo to bring about social change, healing, and liberation for non-White identified communities. The following people and organizations are White antiracist/anti-oppression activists who questioned, resisted, and interrupted racist systems.

People of Color have always worked to end racism. By naming these White activists and organizations, we hope to show that for as long as there has been racial oppression, particularly in the United States, there have been White people who have stood in solidarity with People of Color By highlighting these White activists, we hope to expand the understanding of how White people can work toward racial justice in proactive and productive ways. 

Much of what our students learn in schools about race reflects People of Color as oppressed and White people as “bad racists,” but the realities of anti-oppression/antiracism work are far more nuanced and complex.

To disrupt the narratives we learned in schools, and to support White students in recognizing their empowerment in antiracist work, we are sharing a collection of noted White antiracist/anti-oppression activists whose work can serve as a guidepost. We also recognize that these activists are products of their particular time and reflect the limitations of their time period. We also offer these examples as a way for White educators to think about their personal stake and role in challenging racism in their classrooms. This list is by no means exhaustive, but for those looking to build your curriculum, we hope you will find this list a helpful starting point. This is an attempt to highlight the work of White activists who stood up to racism when it was challenging, unpopular, and even illegal. I personally give my heartfelt thanks to them all!

We were overjoyed to have Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud and his charming wife Madame Angelique Gakako Pitteloud

Tuckahoe Elementary School with a surprise visit from Joan Mulholland

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